A day in the life of a Veterinary employee

posted: Jan 11, 2019.

Behind the scenes. Take a walk in someone else's shoes. Inquiring minds want to know...what is it like to work within the walls of a veterinary hospital? Well it is rewarding, emotional, fun, and different EVERY day! In the morning we start a little before 7 a.m. walking/letting out overnight guests. Cleaning kennels, runs, switching out litter pans, feeding, watering and medicating animals that are prescribed medications. And oh the dishes and laundry we have is mountainous! Once those tasks are complete and more staff starts rolling in we begin to compile our "to do" list starting with the pets that are already in our care. Our technicians check all surgery patients from the previous day, do any physical therapy or fluid therapy that might be needed and prepare for morning appointments and surgeries. At 7:30 a.m. our doors open and most days we see what we are expecting from the schedule but other days we may be flying by the seat of our pants! We have to roll with what comes in the door because those illnesses or accidents can't be scheduled in advance, LOL. Once we have all our surgeries, baths, grooms and other drop offs checked in and gather all histories given to us by the owners we add all of that to our "to do" list. We begin multi-tasking by getting blood work started on surgery patients, getting up vaccines that are to be given, setting up lab equipment to be ready to run. At 8 a.m. our phones are rolled and our appointments begin. We typically see 6 to 8 patients per doctor between 8-10 a.m. So we address the needs of each patient, the doctor comes up with diagnosis if needed after completing any necessary treatments, therapies, and diagnostics. Give any vaccines that are needed. Get up any new foods or prescriptions for the pet and check out the client making sure to take care of any needs they may have. After 10 a..m. 1 doctor "normally" goes into surgery. I say normally because it can be earlier, later or both doctors may need to do surgery. We definitely fly by the seat of our pants! I forgot to say during those morning appointment hours we are multi-tasking again by doing any of the "to do" list things that can be done between those appointments. Clients often add on things to do during the appointment like nail trims, vaccines that aren't quite due but we can save them a trip. I said fly by the seat...you get the picture :) So surgery consists of 4 stages routinely. We exam the pet and blood work that has been done earlier. If all good, we give them a light sedative to prepare them for general anesthesia. Then we let them "chill" with that on board for around 10 minutes or so. Then we get them back out and insert a IV catheter and begin administering fluids, we give them any necessary sedatives and we intubate them and they are then put on our anesthesia machine, hooked up to all the monitoring devices. Then we prep the animal for surgery shaving proposed area, scrubbing the area with surgical scrub (doctor is preparing as well getting into sterile gowns, scrubbing hands/arms, gloving up, face mask-you know like on Grey's Anatomy!) Yeah we're cool like that, LOL. After the scrubbing and cleaning we transport the pet to the surgery room and perform said surgery. Technician is monitoring heart rates, blood pressures, breathing and supplying the doctor with things they need (suture, instruments, etc). After the surgery is completed the pet is taken off anesthesia and put on just oxygen to begin to recover. We clean the pet, place warm blankets/water bottles in their recovery suite and continue to monitor the pet while they are "coming around." After they are extubated and sitting up we begin to clean up and sterilize the room and instruments we used. Then we repeat until we complete our surgeries for the day. Sneaking in phone calls to worried owners. Oh and doing any of that "to do list" while the next patient is getting sleepy. Then we normally, again normally is the word to use with caution but we wrap up surgery around 12 to 1 p.m. Now if that other doctor isn't performing surgery as well they are continuing to see patients and/or working on that to do list. Now is the time that we get to eat, use the restroom, take a break. (hopefully there is time..eekkkk). We are still doing the rounds checking on all of these precious babies we have worked on. Cleaning up after anyone that needs it. Occasionally, you might here OMG or what is that?? Or HELP! Animals can produce some nasty stuff. But they can't help it, that's what we're used to and often try and discuss at the dinner table that night with our family who when we look up we realize they are staring at us like we have 4 heads. I mean we don't think it's gross and often forget not everyone has cast iron stomachs, LOL!! While all of this is going on in the back of the house don't forget our receptionists are busily making our appointments, fielding those phone calls, doing the filing, chart making, filling prescriptions and food orders. Checking emails, and the list goes on and on! The very back of the house are continuing to clean, bath, groom, walk, do the extras that a normal boarding spa does to make sure all pets are treated like this is their 2nd home. Doctors are calling parents to talk about treatments, surgeries, lab work, questions they may have. Then 2 p..m. begins our afternoon appointments and they are basically the same as the morning. We see another maybe 8-10 patients this time between the hours of 2-5 p.m. Then we begin to wind everything down, cleaning, feeding, and medicating those who need it and tuck them in for the night. We have a shut down procedure in all areas-kennel, surgery/treatment and front desk. Afterwards we hope to leave by 6 p.m. feeling accomplished, happy, motivated, and blessed to have been able to treat all those members of your family. We are co-workers, friends, a TEAM! We help each other get to the best result we can for each and every patient. We sometimes have those days as anyone probably does where you seem like nothing is going right. We're getting peed and pooped on or our hair is everywhere because we've literally been through the ringer. But at the end of the day we are the VETERINARY STAFF you know and have formed relationships with. We hope to provide excellent care to you and your fur babies for as long as possible. We are HERE for them and you as you need us to be. I have covered most of our day, however, there are things I'm sure I have left out. This is the gist of it. We have amazing people with hearts of gold that work for us and that come here as clients. All in all we love our days and are happy to do what we do.